Seat and body of motor-cars and other road-carriages.



I lHEETl-IHEET 1.

Patented May "f u/enpw ifa/www! w A. E. HnasoN. SEAT AND BODY OF MOTOR OABB AND OTHER ROAD OARRIAGES.

APPLIOATIOI FILED JAI', l2, 1'901.

'be eared A. E. HODGSON. I vBEAT AND BODY 0I' MOTOR GABS-AND OTHER ROAD GABBIAGBS.

ArPLfoA'TIolr rILnD un. an. 1901. 991,307. yAlmaented May 2, 1911.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2. I

ALBERT EDWARD HODGSON, OF WALTHAMSTOW,

0F WALTHAMSTOW, ENGLAND.

LYANTE MOTOR WORKS,

ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO THE RE- SEAT AND BODY OF MOTOR-CARS AND OTHER ROAD-CARRIAGES.

To all whom 'it may concern.'

Be it known that I, ALBERT EDWARD HonosoN, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and residing at The Relyante Motor Works, of Blackhorse Road, Walthamstow, in the county of Essex, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Seats and Bodies ofMotor- Cars and other' Road-Carriages, of which the following is a specification.

` This invention relates, more especially, to seats and bodies for motor cars, but is also applicable to horse carriages or carriages generally.

In motor and other carriages as heretofore constructed, the seats, in the inclosed part of the vehicle or-in the body portion which Vis usually behind the drivers seat, when placed face to face have the disadvantage that the knees and feet of the persons seated upon the one seat are inconvenienc'ed by those of the persons sitting on the opposite seat; and this invention vhas for its main obj ect to arrange and construct in an improved Ina-nner theinside frontseat or seats.

According to this invention, the front seat or seats of the inclosed part of the carriage body is or are made to face forward, 'as has already beenpreviously proposed, but is or are in the form of chairs having front and rear l and areconstructed to be capable of fo when persons are about to enter or leave by the door of the inclosed part of the vehicle; and, further, according to this invention the front chair seat or each such seat is formed with a back which is rigid with the rearlegs `and is adapted to be turned back toj'oin the back seat, and thus form a couch 4'conjointly back of a with thegback seat and seat proper of the front chair seat, no novelty being claimed, however, broadly for the utilization of the front seat 'in the formation of a. couch.

In order that the invention ma be clearly understood, we will proceed to d'escribe, by way of example, a practical' application Yof the same .with reference to the drawings 7 4 herewith, of whichz- Figure l is a longitudinal section of a motor` car body constructed 4actordingI to this invention, the section. being taken in `the plane indicated-by line a: m of Fig. 4 looklng in the direction of the arrow a and showing one of the front chair seats in its Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed January 22, 1907.

ding up when not required, and

Patented May 2, 1911. Serial No. 853,543.

folded up or out-ofuse position. Fig. 2 is a view corresponding to Fig. 1, but showing the front chair seat in its in-use position and showing also tables hereinafter described, attached to the front of the motor car body and to t-he back of the front seat, respectively, in their unfolded or in-usc positions.' Fig. 3 is a somewhat diagrammatic View, showing the front chair seat in osition for use as a couch. Fig. 4 is a. sectional plan of the car body the section being taken along the irregular line y y of Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 5 is a sect-ion, to an enlarged scale, showing means by which the back of the chair seatV is attached to the back seat when the chair seat is being used in combination with the back seat to form a couch. Fig. G isa sectional view, to the same scale as Fig. 5, taken in the plane indicated by line y y of Fig. 4 illustrating a modification of the invention in which covers 4are used both in connection wit-h the slots in which the legs of the front chair seats lie, when suchseats are out of use, and also with the recess hereinafter described, which is provided to receive a portion of each front seat. Fig. 7 is a section taken on line z z of Fig. 6 loolring in the direction of the arrow a; and, Fig. 8 is a plan view of such modication.

Referring now to Figs. 1 to 5 inclusive of the drawingsherewith, A is a motor ca-r body of the brougham type having a back seat B adapted to seat two or more persons and two front chair seats C side by side, adapted to fold up when out of use, against the front D of the car body. Each front chair seat C has two front legs b which are each pivoted to a bracket c secured to the floor Z of the-car body, and are adapted to be turned down forward until they lie within slots'e formed in the Hoor in a manner similar 'to that which has been previously proposed. Each leg b is formed in one piece with a bearer f whlch is rigidly attached to the` underside of the front seatdproper, as has also been previously propose bearer. has a pivot center g at its rear end formed backwardv of the seat proper .and somewhat below the level thereof, when the seat pro er is inl Vits ign-use position, to which the hind) legs h ofthe chai-r seat and the back lc, which isformed in one piece with the back legs, are pivoted.

Small projections or studs m are formed at the .bottoms ofthe hind legs which are but each adapted to takeqinto corresponding holes n formed in the floor d so as to insure rigidity when the front chair seat is vin its in-use osition. A recess E is formed, convenlently right across the ioor of the car body, close-or near to` the front thereof, in order to receive the forwardly projecting portion o of the seat proper when the latter 1s in its folded up or out-offuse position.

When t-he front chair seats. are in their in-use position, vthe projections' m on the back legs are in the holes n in the floor, as clearly shown by Fig. 2, and in order to tu'rn the seats into their folded up or-out (gf-use position, it is simply necessary in the j case of eachvchair, to-lift the. back 'to clear the projections m from the holes n, turn the back of the seat. backward until it is substantially in dline with the seat proper, and thenl turn the whole chair forward, on the pivot axis c, until it lies out of the way of passengers right up against the front of the-car body, as clearly shown by Fig. 1,

while the front le 'are down in the slots clear of the feet-o the passengers.

rllVhen it is desired to utilize either of the frontichair seats, in conjunction with the baclis'et B, as a' couch, a hook-like attachment p s uch as hasbeenpreviously proposed for a similar "urpose but having a 1i g,

is attached tot e upper part of the bac t of the front chair seat, and attachments 'rare formed von the'back seat B, adapted to end gage each with the correspondlngattach-' ment on the back of the respective front.

chair seat. One of they attachments 'r' is clearly shown in Fig. 5. 4This is also formed hook-shaped, having a lip .s -and also a y the holes ln, as aforesaid, and--the'ff'-back then spring pressed tongue t which serves to press the lip g of the chair back' underneath the' lips so that after the attachment p has been engaged with the attachment fr it cannot be disengaged therefrom inadvertently. It'has been found in practice, however, thatthe spring pressed tongue t can be dispensed with and the 4fittings modified so that the .weight of the chair and back serve to keep the ip g under the lip s.

To utilize a'front chair seat as part of a couch as above stated, the back of thechair.

seat is raised to clear the projections m from turned back-ward and its attachment p engaged with the attachment ron the back seat B. The distance between the front and back seat and the height of the back k are Such-that when the chair `back. is in its couch position and weight'is put thereupon, the attachmentp on the back of thel chair seat bears back against the back part of the fitting r as an abutment, and it will be seen that the pivot center g cannot move downward as it is some distance' above a lineI ass-v ing through the pivot center at c an the attachment r and thus a firm couch is 'along the front of the back seat B just below the to thereof upon which the top edge of the bac of each chair seat may. rest, the top of the back of the chair seat, in this case, bearing back simply 4against the front of the back seat. 1f preferred, also, the chair seat may be made rigid in its couch position, by causing the chair seat proper to extend somewhat sidewise beyond the bearers f and so designing the hind legs that a portion of them, at'any rate, will bear up against such projecting sides when the. front chair seat 1s in itscouch position.

The front legs, may, of course, be rigidly. .attached to the chair seat proper in any4 desired manner, and the back and hind Alegs may also be pivotedto the seat proper 'm any way desired; but the construction with the bearers f for-med rigid with the front lees b is greatly preferred.

' eferrm'g now .to Figs. 6, 7 and 8 each slot e above .described is provided with an cover u hinged -at u in order to preserve the continuity of the oor when the front chair seats are in .either of 'their positions. lWhen a front leg Z) is raised from its slot e, it lifts the cover and .the latter falls back again to close the slot after the leg has been raised. As the leg'fis vturned down again, it automatically raises the cover u on account of a slightly inclined portion w atits foot coming 'against the sloped off edge a2 ofthe cover u. The coverI of course falls back to its place as soon as the leg is down 'in4 its slot. A cover b which may be opened and closed .by hand by means of the handle c mayA be used to close the recess E when the front cha-ir seats are in either of their in-use positions.

Instead -of using the slotsand covers for scribed, a board (coveredv convenientlywith Aa piece of carpet) -may befitted between such legs so that it is vertical when the chair is in use, and the iioor of the car mayV be recessed so that the board will come down flush with the Hoor of is turned down.

The doorwa G at each side of the 'car- .riage is place at the forward-end ofthe Iidlding tables of any suitable construction, such as shown in the drawings herewith, may .be used in connection with the front of the' car body and the backs of the d the front legs of the chair seats as above de-4 A thezcar when the sea-t l front chair seats, for the use of persons seated on the front and back seats, respectively. i

The lower part F of the front of the car body may be made to slope forward, as shown, so as to provide increased room for the feet of the passengers seated on the front chair seats. In lieu thereof, in eases in which the drivers seat is on a level with the carriage floor, apertures may be formed through the front of the carriage body therefor.

It Will be seen that', When only so many passengers as can sit on the back seat desire to travel in the inclosed part of the body, the chair seats, being made to fold up as before mentioned, can be conveniently moved right out of the Way up against the front of the inclosed partof the body, thus leaving the Hoor space clear and adding greatly to the comfort of the passengers; While, on the other hand, when the chair seats arein use,the passengers who occupy the back seatand those Who occupy the chair `seats also, have much more leg room than can be obtained With the passengers seated facing each other, as in the ease of motor car bodies or horse carriages of the usual construction or design.

I have described the invention as 'applied to a motor brougham, but it will be seen that the invention is equally applicable to front support pivoted to the iioor of the compartment and 'adapted to rigidly supi port the front edge of the seat proper, a Y

hind support pivoted to the seat proper and a hack formed rigid Wit-h the hind support, said back being adapted for engagement with the hack seat so that the front seat maybe eitherfolded down against the front of the vehicle set up for use as a chair, or have its back turned back to form a couch in conjunction with the back seat, the hind support in the latter ease lying either just below or in line With the seat proper.

In Witnessvvhereof I have hereunto si ned my name this first day of January, 190 in the presence of two subseribin witnesses.

ALBERT EDWARD ODGSON. `Witnesses: L

lALFRED H. WATKINs,

FREDK. L. RAND. 

